Engine of Creation, what Engine of Creation?
by why 'cuz I said so
Summary: The crew members of the Andromeda reevaluate some of the'junk' scattered about the ship. Why are summaries so hard to write?
1. chapter 1

Title: Engine of Creation, what Engine of Creation?

Characters: All the season 5 gang, minus Rommie. Sorry Rommie.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Andromeda. I am making no money. Thanks.

A/N: This doesn't really fit in at any specific point in season 5, but it either precedes or ignore the events of Pride Before the Fall and all the episodes thereafter. Mostly 'cuz I had already written the first chapter before it aired, and the way I depict Beka and Rhade doesn't reflect the change in their relationship at the end of that ep. I could have re-written the chapter, but I really like how it is now, so que sera.

* * *

In one of Andromeda's machine shops a large piece of scrap metal flew past a pile of similar pieces and out into the hallway. A coil of damaged optics, several small pieces of tubing, scraps of the outer hull, and several unidentifiable bits followed quickly behind. One especially large and pointy piece of junk narrowly missed Rhade's head. 

"Watch it Valentine! You nearly hit me that time."

Beka, looking rather disheveled, stepped out from a storage closet. "Well maybe if you were doing more to help us find the thing instead of just sitting out there 'supervising' you might not be in my way. I wasn't aiming at you, so what are you complaining about anyway?"

"I'm complaining about the fact that I'm sitting ten feet away from the pile of junk you **were** aiming for and you still almost hit me. You're a lousy shot Captain Valentine, I'd be less worried if you were aiming at me."

"Oh really Mr. Self-sufficient? Well next time I see Kalaz's cretins aiming guns at the back of your head I won't bother shooting at them, I'll just aim for you and save your life for the umpteenth time that way."

Rhade wanted to retort, but there really wasn't much he could say; Beka had recently saved his life by killing would be assassins and was actually an excellent shot. "Well perhaps you could at least explain why we are searching for it here of all places? I can't believe Dylan would hide something that valuable in a junkyard like this anyway." Rhade looked around himself in disgust, "Even Harper would call this stuff junk. Shouldn't we be looking in the high security storage lockers?"

Beka was more than a little sick of the search herself, but she was even more tired of Rhade's childish attitude. "I told you already Rhade, Dylan had Trance hide it back then and she says she hid it in one of the machine shops Harper rarely used but she can't remember exactly which one. If you don't want to help us find it, just go back to one of the planets and call one of your girlfriends!"

Rhade snorted, "As if I would let you find it alone." He glanced over at Beka. She was getting seriously pissed off. He decided to change tacks. "So Trance, why did you hide it somewhere like this? Why not lock it in one of the high security areas?"

"Well, I thought that if anyone ever found out we had it that would be the first place they looked. So I figured I would hide it in plain sight like in The Purloined Letter." Ever dedicated, Trance never stopped looking through the scraps.

"The Purloined Letter?" Beka and Rhade asked in unison, immediately glaring at each other.

"Yeah, that old story from Earth." Trance finally did pause. "I don't know how I know that." Looking down again, Trance burst into a huge smile, "Hey look, I found it!"

Beka and Rhade walked over to Trance. Rhade looked a little skeptical. "So that's it, the mythical Engine of Creation? A tool for manipulating the fabric of the universe, which you two and Dylan claim to have won as a prize from an alien race over 2 years ago?" Beka and Trance both nodded the affirmative. "Well, now what?"

Beka flinched slightly. "Now we have to tell Harper it's here." Beka spoke into the air, trusting Andromeda to direct her message to Harper's location, "Harper are you there?"

"Yeah, Boss what is it? I'm kinda busy here trying to repair Andromeda's interphase…"

"Whatever Harper. Leave that for later, we need you to come to machine shop…" Beka looked around, "umm I have no idea what machine shop this is; you guys? No, of course not." Fortunately Holo-Rommie was somewhat functional that day and appeared to provide the necessary information. "You are in machine shop 59 on deck…"

"That's okay Andromeda, I'm sure Harper will know where it is. Harper, you still there? Come to machine shop 59, pronto."

"Machine shop 59? Are you kidding me? Why? That's where I keep all my junk, I mean all my essential materials for my most important projects. What are you guys doing down there?"

"Harper don't argue, and never mind why, just get your butt down here now. Beka out."

**oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo**

Dylan, Beka, Trance, Rhade, and Doyle all stood outside of the machine shop. Trance and Doyle were was calm as always, but the others were pacing around impatiently. Beka stopped suddenly and smiled at the two men. "We look like a bunch of parents-to-be waiting outside a delivery room."

Staring at the wall Rhade gave a half grimace of a smile, "Well I suppose that makes Harper the expectant mother. That's a disturbing thought." A real grin appeared as he turned to Beka, "Does that make you the proud father Beka?"

Beka gave him a look of half surprise-half disgust. "Ahh no. Most definitely not. Think of Harper as the doctor just there for the delivery, he wasn't even with us when we found the Engine anyway."

Rhade raised an eyebrow, "Well now, that would have been you, Trance, and Dylan correct? And Trance was forced to watch from the sidelines while you and Dylan were tested? So that you makes you and Dylan the lucky parents?"

Beka would have replied, but Dylan interrupted. "Finding and retrieving the Engine was a team effort, just like making it useful will be." He was seriously tired of Rhade and Beka's incessant bickering and sniping. It seemed like he spent half his time trying to keep them from mortally insulting each other and the other half wishing they would just sleep together or shoot each other, whichever it had to be. But he was fairly certain that whichever action they took only one would come out alive, and he needed them both. "We all need to just calm down and have a little patience, I'm sure Harper will give us some sort of progress report eventually."

Just then Harper emerged from the shop, smiling triumphantly. "Well, I suppose you're all waiting for news on whether or not the" his voice became theatrical, "ENGINE-gine-gine-gine OF-of-of-of CREATION-tion-tion-tion" then returned to normal, "can be made functional. But I have a question first. Why the hell did we never use this thing before?"

Everyone looked at each other, waiting for someone else to answer. Trance finally spoke up, "Well, maybe we didn't know how to use it? I can't really remember, but that makes sense though, right?"

"Nuh-uh. I'm not buying it. 'Cuz maybe if someone had mentioned this littl' beauty to the resident genius he, meaning me, could have told you how to use it. I mean, it took me what, 35 minutes to figure it out?"

Beka decided that it was only fair that she took her turn as the object of the engineer's agitation. "Well, it's not exactly that we didn't trust you Harper…."

"Oh, so that's it exactly! Never trust the Harper because he would sell his own grandmother to make a buck! Why do people always think that about me?" He paused mid-rant, arms still up in the air. Everyone was looking at him strangely. He dropped his arms to his sides. "Ok, well, I can see your point. Anyway, that still doesn't answer my question!"

"Wait a minute Mr. Harper. Are you saying you already know how to use the Engine? We've been keeping this powerful tool a secret for years when a half hour of tinkering would have made it ready to use? I thought it was supposed to be a hugely complex piece of Vedran technology. It has the power to create universes for the Divine's sake, you can't tell me you've figured it out already!" Dylan was most definitely grumpy at the universe at that moment. Why was it never easy?

"Well, Boss, it's only a part of the Engine, so we can't create any universes here, but yeah, I figured out how to tap enough of it's potential to be useful. Enough to stabilize the suns for now, and hopefully get us back to our universe."

Doyle spoke for the first time. "It doesn't really matter why it was never used before Harper, the important thing is that you can use it now. You should get back to work."

Trance cut off any protest from Harper by grabbing his hand, "I'll help Harper, I think I use to know a lot about the Engine before." She gently pulled him back into workshop.

Doyle waited for the doors to close before turning back to the others. "So really, why didn't you ever use it before? From the logs I've read it seems like it would have come in useful several times."

The others all looked at each other again. They really had no answer. Rhade disavowed any responsibility, "Hey don't look at me, I didn't even know it was on board Andromeda, that little fact was left out of the official record. Judging by the looks on our two captains' faces though, I'd guess they forgot about it. Forgot about one of the most powerful pieces of technology in existence." Rhade shook his head while Doyle looked at them doubtfully.

Beka just shrugged. "Well, I won't say I forgot about it, but it's not like it's the only time we found a powerful weapon and then never used it again."

"Like what Beka?"

"Like that bell, Dylan"

"What bell?"


	2. chapter 2

Disclaimer: Don't blame me for Doyle! What can I say, the girl's got an evil sense of humor. Blame Harper, it's all his fault, he programmed her after all. It's always Harper's fault.

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"… it's not like it's the only time we found a powerful weapon and then never used it again."

"Like what Beka?"

"Like that bell, Dylan"

"What bell?"

Beka waved her hand at Dylan and Rhade. "You guys know what I'm talking about. The bell. From the doll. The, I don't know what to call it, the anti-Abyss bell Wenslow gave me."

Hands on her hips Doyle turned to the two men, waiting for a better explanation. Dylan's mouth was slightly open while Rhade was rubbing his hands through his hair and shaking his head. It was the Nietzschean who spoke. "We are such fools. We have been carrying around a major weapon against the Abyss and we never used it! What were we thinking! I really need a drink."

"No you don't, trust me. Harper's out of real alcohol again and you don't want to know what he's serving. And it's not true that we never used it, the day we found the bell we used it to drive agents of the Abyss away from the Archives. Anyway, it's not like the Abyss ever warned when it was attacking, and for the most part I think we did a pretty good job defending ourselves and everyone else without it! And for that matter…"

"Hold on Beka, no need to get defensive with me." Doyle had no intention of letting Beka get started on a rant. Not while she still had questions. "What I don't understand is this: the bell drives away agents of the Abyss, the great evil of the universe, the power that destroyed your last stand forcing Trance to send you all here, but you don't carry it with you at all times? Just in case?"

Rhade and the captain were still not talking, at least not coherently, so Beka continued. "Well, we had to keep it safe didn't we? There was no one left to explain where it had come from or what it's real purpose was. For all we knew it was a single use only deal."

"Ok Beka, but I still think you should have at least tried it. So where did you put it for safe keeping? Somewhere better than where Trance hid the Engine of Creation I hope."

Rhade's muttering temporarily became intelligible, "I really want a drink. What were we thinking?"

Beka had gotten very good at ignoring Rhade since arriving on Seefra. She frowned in concentration as she considered Doyle's question. "Well that's an interesting question. I was pretty upset when we came back from the Archives, too much reliving the past I guess. I remember throwing the bell onto my bunk in the Maru. Then I decided that if I was going to relive my distant past I might as well relive my more recent past too. So I started going through some crates of junk, and I found an entire crate of stuff from old boyfriends. I was sorting through it, throwing most of it in a pile on the floor when I came across some of Tyr's old shirts. I threw them in the junk pile at first, but right before I hauled it all to the waste hatch I pulled them from the pile and tossed them on my bunk. Don't ask me why." Beka's frown deepened. "You know I don't remember seeing the bell after that. It must have gotten mixed up with Tyr's stuff when I shoved it back in the crate."

"So you _think_ it might be in a crate somewhere on the Maru?" Doyle was finding it harder and harder to believe that the Andromeda's crew had survived for as long as they had. The universe must really love them she decided, it was the only way to explain their survival.

Rhade finally managed to process what Beka had said. For a moment he was the old Rhade, indignant at her lack of military discipline. "Beka what were you thinking? Treating something that important so carelessly? It should have been turned over to Captain Hunt at once." In a flash he was the new Rhade again. "Did you say you had Tyr Anasazi's clothes in your quarters? On the Maru?" Blink. "You _still_ have Tyr Anasazi's clothes on the Maru?"

"Listen you two, maybe we can continue this on the Maru? While we're looking through crates?"

Dylan decided to duck out of the search process yet again. It had been a long day, he was tired, and if Beka and Rhade were going to kill each other today he was perfectly willing to let it happen as long as it didn't happen in front of him. "I'm just going to wait here and keep an eye on Trance and Harper's progress. You three have fun though."

"Fine, yeah. Come on." Beka lead them to the Maru, lost in thought and apparently oblivious to the irritated looks Rhade sent her.

**ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo**

Several hours later the trio located the infamous 'ex-boyfriend crate'. It was well hidden, buried under nearly every other storage crate on the Maru and mislabeled 'Tampons, Pads, etc.'

Beka pulled Tyr's chain mail-like shirt from the top. "Fashion sense was not one of Anasazi's strengths" sneered Rhade.

"Oh, I don't know, I always thought he looked very good in that. Probably why I kept it. You can have it if you want." Beka still appeared distracted.

The Nietzschean's look of confusion amused Doyle. "I don't know Beka, I not sure it would fit him, way too big I think." Her mischievous smile was lost on Beka, but her comment apparently hit home with Rhade.

"Not all Nietzscheans measure worth by size." Doyle's smile grew bigger. "What I mean is, having an impressive physique isn't everything." The android was now holding a hand over her mouth, trying to hide her amusement. "I don't want to be compared to Tyr Anasazi!"

Doyle opened her mouth to continue torturing Rhade, but as Beka pulled another shirt from the crate a small bell fell to the floor. Doyle was unimpressed. "So that's it? I was expecting, oh I don't know," she shot an evil look at Rhade, "something bigger."

Beka picked up the bell, ignoring the exchange between Doyle and Rhade. "We better go find the others, let them know we found this." She lead them back to machine shop 59 by the same route she had taken to the Maru, again with Doyle and Rhade in tow. Only this time Rhade was glaring at Doyle instead of her.


	3. chapter 3

Dylan looked at the small bell sitting in the palm of his hand. Then he looked up at Doyle, Beka, and Rhade all staring at him. He contemplated the bell further, then looked at the others again. Yup, definitely still staring at him. What, did they think he secretly knew all the answers and was just holding out on them? "Well I don't know anything more about this bell now than I did last year, but what do you say we let Harper run some tests on it?"

As no one had a better idea they all entered the machine shop. Harper was busy working on the Engine, moving back and forth between it and a half dozen monitors. Despite the fact that he never stopped talking he managed to give the impression that he wasn't even aware of Trance's presence in the room. She smiled at the others and motioned them over to the workbench she was sitting on.

"I have another puzzle for you Mr. Harper."

Harper looked at the bell Dylan placed on the table. "Hey, I had forgotten all about that. Man I wish we still had access to those Archives, I wouldn't mind getting 3-D with some of those Holonovel babes. Wait just a minute, are you guys thinking what I'm thinking?"

"God Harper, I hope not!" "I would never presume to think the way you think Mr. Harper." "Harper please, that's just gross."

Apparently they were not. The engineer made an exasperated noise, "Jeez people, give me a _little_ credit. Archives, All Systems Library, ringing any bells, pardon the pun? That compressed copy of the Special Collections from the All Systems Library that we pulled from my head after that Perseid tried to fry my brain? I gave it to Trance after that super hot Abyss chic tried to seduce it away from me! I would bet my last credit, if I had any, that it could help us figure these things out."

As one they turned to Trance, and waited.

Trance squirmed a little under everyone's stares. "Uh, yeah, I don't really remember what I did with that. Maybe I destroyed it? Or put it somewhere where I…..wouldn't…….um…..forget it? But you know what would really help us I think? Those Mithas crystals. So Doyle how is the work on the Mithas crystals coming?" Trance was remembering more and more about her previous life, including important skills like how to switch topics rapidly.

Doyle attempted to dodge the question. "Mithas crystals?"

"Yeah. Mithas crystals. Vedran guides to the system. The ones they hid for safety. The ones half the Seefran system is after. The ones I almost died to get!" Beka was just a little emotionally invested in the crystals.

"Of course, those Mithas crystals. Well in the excitement of, everything, I kind of……….forgot about them? They are incomplete after all, so they are of limited value. And Dylan never really intended me to figure them out, right? They were just makework to force Andromeda and I to get along. Right?" Doyle looked around, hoping someone would back her up. No such luck. "Hey stop looking at me like that, I don't see any of you solving those crystals either. Anyway, they don't have the information we need most; how to get out of this system. Even if we get the slipstream drive working we can't use it without knowing where we are. If we head blindly into slipstream we could get lost forever." Such depressing reminders did not improve anyone's mood.

Trance did feel a little guilty for getting Doyle in trouble. A random thought occurred to her. "I was wondering, this is Tarn Vedra right? And Beka figured out the Mad Perseid's route to Tarn Vedra from that diary Harper and I, uh, recovered? So why don't we just follow the route backwards to someplace we know?"

"'Cuz Trance that trip almost killed us. Several times in a variety of ways even. Uh-uh, no way, we not trying that again. Better a live Harper on Seefra than a dead Harper back in our universe."

"But we don't have to follow the whole route, just back a step or two, until we know where we are!"

Rhade shook his head. "It won't work Trance. You can't follow the same route backwards; slipstream routes are more like wormholes than terrestrial streets."

Beka was looking at Rhade as if he was an alien. "What are you talking about Rhade? I know you can't follow the same route to and from a place, but what's all this about wormholes?"

Dylan got in on it too. "Yes Rhade please elaborate. I had no idea you were an amateur physicist as well as a mercenary for hire and all around good guy."

"Funny Dylan. Wormholes only allow travel in one direction. At least they only allow matter to travel one way, radio waves and energy like that can go both ways." Now everyone was staring at Rhade as if he was an alien. Beka's eyebrows were raised so high they looked like they were trying to escape her face, Harper was slowly backing away, Trance was trying to calculate the likelihood that Rhade was possessed by something (79.84 Approximately.), and Dylan had a look of pity on his face, as if he had just realized that Rhade was barely clinging onto his last marble. "Never mind, not important, doesn't apply to our situation."

"Rhade are you feeling ok? You didn't eat any of 'Today's Special' did you? Because you know what makes it special…." Beka couldn't help but be a little curious. And concerned. She had risked death or worse to eat at Harper's bar that afternoon too.

Rhade rubbed the back of his neck, "Actually I am feeling a little strange but good. The only way to describe it is almost god-like, though…"

The others didn't allow Rhade to continue any further. A chorus of groans, snorting laughter, and comments of "Just normal Nietzschean delusions of grandeur" and "Are you granting requests today?" bounced off the walls. Rhade looked around, realized there was no way to recover the situation and did the only sensible thing. He ignored them all and walked away. Quickly.

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A/N2: Yeah, I admit it, I did it. I put apparently random SG:1 references/allusions in one of my Andromeda fics. And I made up lies (I think) about slipstream to do it. It could've been much worse – that little bit was originally intended as the genesis of an entire chapter where all the actors that have been on both shows made appearances on Seefra as their SG alter egos. But there are just too many! 

Oh, also, I know this isn't really the best way to end a story. I do have an idea for another chapter in mind, but it wouldn't end the story any better and it's arguing with me anyway so… :) Hope you all enjoyed!


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